Dr. Norman specializes in hands-on history; environmental, technological, and material. She believes in student involvement in history and has developed an Internship in Public History to enable students to gain experience working in museums and historical societies. Her public history work has resulted in preservation studies of the Town of Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Key West, Pompano Beach, and Gulfstream, Florida. Currently she is Past-President of the Society for Industrial Archaeology.

Dr. Norman's museum work has included museum and exhibit design in the Bahamas and south Florida. History and archaeology are combined in work on early English settlement in the Bahamas. She has received numerous teaching awards including the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Teaching Incentive Program Award.